Police Use Brutal Force, Drag Baby And Pregnant Woman

Footage of French police using apparently excessive force while breaking up an immigrant squat has prompted outrage as activists and intellectuals accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police.

The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL), shows officers roughly handling women and children as they break up a group of 150 squatters who were evicted from a tower block in La Courneuve, north-east of Paris.

At one point, a woman is shown being pulled by her legs across the ground, her baby – which she had been carrying on her back – dragged along the concrete after her.